


Cold Field

by BlackMajjicDuchess



Series: Namesake [22]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Death, Friendship, Hope, Teamwork, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 16:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7581967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackMajjicDuchess/pseuds/BlackMajjicDuchess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I got the idea in my head one day to bring some of the Naruto characters face-to-face with the thing they were named after for the first time. I thought it might be fun. Also accepting challenges!</p><p>Stories will be posted separately but as part of the Namesake series.</p><p>Part 22: Cold [Severe, Dignified] Field.</p><p>All the mental preparation in the world was not near enough. What Rin had seen could never be unseen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Field

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shy Girl 1918](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Shy+Girl+1918).



> For Shy Girl 1918
> 
> Rin - Severe, cold, dignified.  
> Nohara - Field

* * *

It was an odd kind of weather. So odd, in fact, that Rin wondered if it was what passed as normal for the area surrounding Amegakure. It was a damp country, and if she remembered correctly, rain was a product of strange temperature patterns—hot to evaporate water, cold to condense it and create rain. The air was warm and humid like breath and caused sweat to soak through her clothes. But when the wind blew, it was icy and froze her to the bone. It was dreadful weather for a mission. Classroom training didn’t adequately prepare for the mundane human problems associated with field work. She knew how to make a fire, heal wounds, and fight. She wasn’t mentally prepared to freeze to death or spend days walking, walking, always walking. Or worse, standing completely still, awaiting reinforcements while trying to also remain undiscovered.

She could soldier through the weather, though. What bothered her more was that her boys were so grim. Kakashi always looked that way, for he always took himself too seriously for her taste, but Obito? Much of the time, he emulated Kakashi out of reverence and yes, out of spite. But the telltale sideways glances were notably absent today as they walked deep into Amegakure. The line of his lips was flat, his brow somber. If anything, he looked at her more than Kakashi, as if he was worried about her. No one said a word, not even Minato-sensei, and usually he reserved mission walk-tos to remind them of key elements of their training that they invariably never forgot. It was his one and only nervous habit.

Because of the moody atmosphere, she was determined to be the smile in the graveyard. She started talking, telling stories of happier days. At one point, she tried to make them promise they’d have a party when they returned from their mission. She even promised to bake a cake. She explained that she’d been learning how to make the perfect frosting and couldn’t wait to show them…

It was at that point that Kakashi snapped. “Stop being a child!” he scolded, rounding on her in a fury too cold for any but Kakashi to perfect.

“Kakashi…” Minato warned.

“You think this is a vacation?” he continued as if Minato hadn’t even spoken. “We could die out here. You should take this more seriously, Rin. I’d expect this behavior out of Obito— _he’s_ an idiot—but even he respects the gravity of the situation.”

At first, she was hurt. Kakashi was often somber, but he seldom seemed quite so angry. Minato generally let them hash out their own squabbles, though if it got too harmful, he’d step in. Helpless, she looked to Obito. He was still just as concerned, but said not one word to leap to her defense. It made her feel alone, and uncharacteristically defensive. “I’m a _kunoichi_ ,” she hissed. “Not a child.”

“You’re not acting like one,” Kakashi retorted, crossing his arms.

“Then you know nothing about kunoichi. You can be as dead inside as you want to, Kakashi. But I’m not about to let any of you”—she glanced at each of them in turn—“rush headlong into a battle without believing there is something good to live for, even if it’s something as simple as a good cake.” She stalked past them, walking ahead, still fuming. In her head, she heard Minato-sensei’s lesson from the past to never make herself a target, to walk alongside her comrades so they could protect her properly. She was the team’s medic-nin. Her life was valued above theirs, a Shinobi rule she hated and rebelled against in her heart. She always put her boys above herself.

“Rin!” Obito called softly from behind her. She didn’t stop walking, but shortened her stride to let him catch up to her. She gave him her healthiest glare, thinking he meant to soft-talk her into being serious like they were. He grabbed her gently by the arm and forced her to stop. His expression held an intense level of care, but he was trying harder to hide it now. Why, she wondered? “If we get back to—“ He stopped himself, recalibrated his words. “ _When_ we get back to Konoha,” he corrected, “I’d love to try out that cake with the special frosting you’ve worked so hard on.” He smiled. It was subdued, but in light of everything, it was the most beautiful smile, full of hesitant hope.

For her, it was a victory sweeter than any mission success. The way she saw it, it was her job to keep them sane even if the world fell apart around them. She didn’t have the right words to thank him at that moment, so she just said “OK” and smiled back in kind. It felt good. It filled her with the courage she needed to do what was necessary. “Hey, Obito…”

“Hm?”

“I know you guys think I’m too soft—“

“No, no, no!” he promised. “Not at all!”

She gave him a look, and he withered. “I know war is ugly,” she told him softly. “And I know we could get hurt or die. I’m not afraid of that.”

“Me either.”

She fidgeted, toying with the edges of her apron. “Then what has you all so bothered? We knew what we were getting into.”

“It’s not that easy to talk about…” he hedged, looking away.

She sighed, defeated. “You think I’m a child, too.”

“No!” he all but shouted. _“I_ don’t! It’s just that…”

“What, then?” she demanded.

He stared at her. The concern fled, and in its place was a determination Obito seemed to lack always. “None of us are afraid of dying, Rin. We’re dreading the possibility of watching _someone else_ die.”

Her mouth fell open. She turned around and looked at Kakashi. Imagined him opened up from an enemy attack, losing his life into the dirt at her feet. The thought of it made her sick. Her overactive imagination added belated confessions of love. Perhaps he’d even died to save her. His hands were shaking, covered in his own blood. She swallowed, tamping down the urge to throw up. She wanted to say “Oh” but the word caught in her throat. She looked back to Obito instead, horrified.

He looked sad now. “If there’s any cake left…” he muttered.

“What?” she wondered, confused and dizzy.

“Nevermind.”

A screech from the air interrupted her train of thought and drew all eyes. A large brown eagle circled once above, then descended from the skies, alighting upon Minato-sensei’s upraised arm. He grunted from the impact and visibly struggled with the weight of the bird, though the eagle itself seemed unconcerned. “Message from the battlefield,” he said in a voice deeper than any man Rin had ever met. “Are you the Yellow Flash?”

Rin and Obito rejoined their teammates, all squabbles forgotten. They were a team, no matter what happened. Mission directives took priority over personal foibles.

“Yes,” Minato-sensei confirmed. “I'm Namikaze Minato.”

The eagle straightened, adopting a posture that struck Rin as nothing less than regal. It seemed to be the bird's equivalent of a military salute. “Konoha’s remaining Shinobi have been ambushed by an unorganized militant force.” Rin gasped. “They don’t appear to be full-fledged Shinobi, but they are…very aggressive.”

“What is my command?” Minato-sensei asked, his face grave.

“Your immediate presence is required. Make all haste.”

He nodded once. “Which direction?”

The eagle raised its wings and shook them gently, preparing for take off. “About a half a mile to the northeast…” He squatted, ready to push off his perch. “As the eagle flies.” He shoved off, immediately dipping low to the earth, talons scratching the soil.

Minato-sensei shook his arm and stretched his shoulder. “Tell them I’m on my way!” he called after it.

The eagle flapped hard and began rising. “I’m not a messenger pigeon!” he screeched back. “Just show up! Fast!”

He turned back to his students. “I should go on ahead,” he told them.

“That sounds like a trap,” Obito argued.

“I agree,” Kakashi said, shocking Obito. “The only thing I’m not sure of is whether it’s a trap for you or for us.”

Minato stared after the eagle, clearly conflicted. Then he turned back to them. “It’s a risk we have to take. Watch each other’s back. You’re Shinobi now.”

“What about you?” Rin asked. “Who’s going to watch your back?”

He gave a sheepish smile. “I’m not that easy to catch.” He ruffled her hair and then took off, leaving her indignantly putting it back in place.

“I really should start tying it back,” she grumbled.

“It looks nice, though,” Obito said.

She looked at him. He turned red.

“We should split up,” Kakashi said.

“Who died and made you captain of the team?” Obito demanded. Kakashi only stared at him. At last, Obito sighed. “He’s right. Kakashi and I should go on ahead.”

“No!” she protested. “You can’t leave me behind!”

“Rin,” Kakashi said patiently. “You’re the medic-nin. If there’s an active battle, it’s best if you hang back. Obito and I will arrive at the battlefield and provide support for Minato-sensei. You should come about twenty minutes after to attend to all of the wounded.”

She saw her opening. “But there could be wounded now!” she countered, hands flailing in the air. “Any delay could cost them their lives!”

“But Rin,” Obito interjected, “if anything happens to you, they _all_ die.”

“They all die anyway if we sit here arguing about it,” Kakashi added impatiently.

So she frowned and nodded and let them go, counting twenty minutes in her head. Every second felt like an hour. Her boys could have been dead in _five_ minutes, never mind twenty. The outrage of her sitting in a field counting was maddening. A dozen times, she considered saying to hell with it and going to the battlefield anyway. But she was more worried about Kakashi’s disappointment that she’d failed to follow directions. His command left her rooted. Unhappy, but rooted. 

But when she finally counted the full twenty minutes, she flew into action as quickly as possible.

 _Twenty minutes,_ she intoned in her mind as a light rain pattered down upon her headband. _A half mile northeast._ Then she remembered that she’d be walking into a battle. She cleared her mind, preparing it for a battle scene. She knew what combat looked like; gritted teeth, determined faces, wounds and fierceness. Fallen bodies. She was ready.

But as she neared, the sounds of active battle were notably absent. Fearing the worst, she spurred her movement forward, ready to fight. If Minato-sensei, or Obito, or Kakashi…she set her jaw and crested a hill, and stopped dead in her tracks.

The earth was charred black, still smoking in places, steaming in others. She could still feel the heat from warmed stone against her face. Crumpled heaps of twisted bodies still smoldered. The land was completely blasted, grey and black. There wasn’t even the red of blood to be seen, though in the center of the carnage, Obito and Kakashi stood and Minato-sensei knelt, gently moving aside the broken wing of a fallen eagle.

The wind rose up, chilling her with a breath like winter. She shivered, tearing her eyes away from her teammates and sweeping the battlefield for signs of life. When she realized what she was doing, she took her first step down the hill. There were tears leaking from her eyes, but she uttered not one sound as she made her way toward the first of the fallen. There was the hiss and pop of cooking fat, but she swallowed her revulsion and knelt beside the Shinobi, checking for a pulse. Nothing.

"We were too late," Kakashi murmured to no one in particular. "No survivors."

She ignored his comment and moved on to the next one. And the next. All the way around the field, she checked pulses. Pushed aside corpses. Dug through piles of bodies to ensure there were no survivors buried beneath. Collected personal effects to bring back to their loved ones. By the time she was finished, her tears had dried up. She was dead inside as they were dead. And they were, all of them…dead.

Her last charge was the eagle. She didn’t know how to check for an eagle’s pulse, but she pressed her ear to its smaller chest, held a tiny pocket mirror in front of its yawning beak. Nothing. She stood, dusted off her apron, and made eye contact with her sensei. “All clear,” she croaked. She was surprised by her own voice. It sounded like someone else’s, completely choked off and devoid of emotion.

“Are you okay, Rin?” Obito asked.

She turned toward the sound, blinking. Refocusing. “Oh…Obito.” She smiled as she always had, but it felt somehow wrong. And the fact that it was wrong upset her, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. And then she was hiding in his shoulder and sobbing and oh so certainly confused. And then she was angry because they knew— _they knew,_ she _knew_ that they knew—that this would happen to her and they hadn’t told her.

She walked home with her teammates in abject silence, every step weighted with lead. She could feel their eyes on her. The air was thick with their pity, but it didn’t matter anymore. She couldn’t unsee dead faces. She couldn’t unsmell burnt flesh. The terror in the eagle’s milky blue, glazed-over eyes haunted her. The blood on her apron could be washed out, but she’d still always know it _had been there_.

But when they got back to the welcoming gate of Konoha, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned toward Minato-sensei. He was smiling at her as if none of it had happened. “A bad mission always makes me hungry, and I have a legendary sweet tooth. If you still want to have that party…I think Kushina might want to get her hands on that cake recipe. But if you ask nicely, she might give you one of hers. What do you say, Rin?”

“Yesss! _CAAAKE!”_ Obito exclaimed. “I had almost forgotten! You promised, Rin!”

As in all things, she looked to Kakashi, the only one who hadn’t agreed. He stared at her, his fathomless eyes seeing through her, seeing everything. He was always too wise for his age. It made her feel inadequate. “Why not?” he said at last.

“Tch! Come on, Kakashi,” Obito complained. “You don’t even _like_ cake! I want to eat the whole thing!”

“I’d be interested to see that. Maybe your gut will inflate enough to match your head.”

“What?! Say that to my face!”

Kakashi looked bored. “I just did.”

“I can make two, if you want,” she offered hesitantly. “Then Obito can have his own…?”

There was silence. Then Obito whooped victoriously and leaped into the air while Kakashi sighed audibly and Minato-sensei laughed. And just like that, everything was back to normal. Or some semblance of it, at least. She would never be the same again, not after... _that_. But with her teammates--her friends--by her side, she could be okay, and that was good enough for a kunoichi.


End file.
